In plain words
1. Individual freedom.
2. Fundamental right.
From the day our life begins until it ends, for three quarters of it we live by Fundamental right. Our whole life we spend with society itself. On your own, you are never independent. You cannot live in solitude without forming bonds and ties with society and with people. For you to live all alone is not possible. So, all our life long, we keep forming bonds and ties with society. So Seva Dal members must recognise that this human state was granted for the service of society, and not merely for serving oneself. There is another inner meaning in this word Duty. We must take up a freedom that does no harm to the freedom of others. If, puffed up with the thought, “My freedom is mine,” you push forward to infringe another person's freedom, society will punish you. However much right you have to your freedom, the other person has just as much. A small example: thinking, “I have my freedom, haven't I?”, you might take a big stick in your hand and go along the highway swinging it as you please. As much freedom as you have to swing the stick, the man travelling toward you has as much freedom to keep clear of it. If you behave so as to infringe the freedom of the person coming toward you, either society or else the government will punish you. So, within this word Duty, just as far as our freedom and our right are limited, so too the other person has just the same right. You cannot roam the villages telling yourself, “I have every right, haven't I?” If you want that kind of right, go and wander in the forest. So, living in society, not even a Prime Minister can move about at will, thinking, “I have every kind of power, haven't I?” Even a mahārāja who rules a great kingdom cannot undertake to fulfil all the wishes of his people. He cannot move about at will, thinking, “I am the king, am I not?” Even a king has certain hardships, discipline, certain rules. When a king who rules over only a small physical kingdom has so many rules, God, the refuge of all the worlds, has many more restrictions still. We cannot say that God may do anything at all. He too has certain rules. A small example. There are devotees in the world. One devotee among them: “Swami! The seeds I sowed are drying up. Send rain in good time,” he prays. Another devotee, to the same God: “Swami! I hope to hold a wedding in my house. Keep the rain away these three days, Swami!” he prays. One devotee wants rain to come, the other wants no rain. This is like putting God in a fix. What, then, is God to do? Both are devotees all the same. Both pray on the strength of their own self-interest. But we must ask: do all such prayers reach God direct?